Study on the applicability of a retaining wall using batter piles in clay

A retaining wall using batter piles has been developed and studied to improve existing earth-retaining structures at Pusan National University. The earth-retaining method is a temporary excavation method using an integrated system of front supports and batter piles. The batter piles connected to the front supports significantly reduce the earth pressure acting on the front supports by distributing it to batter piles to increase structural stability. In this study, the existence of batter piles, the fixity of the tips of front supports or batter piles, the spacing between batter piles, and the verticality of front supports are varied across model tests. The lateral displacement of the earth-retaining wall decreased by approximately 40% and 15% for the existence and fixity of batter piles, respectively. The applicability of the earth-retaining method using batter piles has been verified with finite element analysis and field test execution in clay ground.